Steel Maiden (11 page)

“Excuse me, but is there any food for the
racers? I’ve hadn’t had much since I was locked up and I was
wondering…”

The guard kept walking without
answering.

“Guess not,” I said grumpily.

We merged onto the main street, moving west
towards Soul City’s west gate. We rounded a corner between the tall
limestone buildings that towered beside us, and the gate came into
view.

It looked and sounded as though the entire
population of the six kingdoms of Arcania had come to see the start
of the race. Thousands of nobles and highborn folks crowded around
the west gate and stood on the ramparts. Musicians played a melody
I had never heard before, and I let the music cheer me for a
moment. The unmistakable white robes of the six high priests
glimmered on a raised platform. Like great kings, one for each of
the six kingdoms, they sat on thrones and looked down on us all.
While they all differed physically, they all shared the same cold,
evil look in their eyes.

The high priest of Anglia’s pale skin and
eyes were lost in the brilliance of his silk white robe. He looked
godlike and surreal, which was probably what he was going for. He
held a jeweled staff with a yellow diamond and a sun symbol on the
top. His cold, self-important smile made my stomach churn. He
hadn’t seen me yet.

As I looked more carefully I could see that
the priests were accompanied by grotesque, shadowy figures that
hovered next to them. No one else seemed to notice these small,
gnarled beasts that knelt beside each priest. I suspected that I
might be the only one who could see them. While they were
grotesque, their wet eyes told a story of pain, and I immediately
felt sorry for them. They were probably slaves, like the rest of
us.

I searched the crowds for Brother Edgar, but
I couldn’t find him. I had the unmistakable feeling that he was
watching me from somewhere.

We finally came to a stop at the entrance to
the west gate, and I saw the other champions, my competition.

There was no mistaking them. Representatives
from all of the conquered nations were lined up on their steeds
facing the west wall.

I recognized the blue and white flag of
Fransia, and the orange and yellow flag with the eagle and snake
emblem of Romila.

Even atop their great horses the Girmanians
were huge. They were broad-shouldered men and women whose muscles
bulged underneath their thick leather clothes and steel armor. They
looked like fairy tale characters as their horses chomped at their
bits under their green, black, and yellow colors. I could see the
intricate designs that had been shaved into their heads.

The riders from Purtula were dark-skinned,
and the fierceness of their appearance was matched in the intensity
of their eyes. Their purple and green flag was emblazoned with two
snakes coiled around a sword.

The Espanians’ emblem depicted a red dragon
on a blue shield, and their red and blue uniforms shone in the
sunlight.

I had the sudden impression that I was being
watched.

A woman with a red dragon stitched to her
cloak was staring at me. She was Espanian with coffee-colored skin
and dark glossy hair. She looked like she’d been in the sun a
while. Her expression was curious and intense. Was this an
intimidation? There was something strange about the way she was
looking at me.

She turned away, and I continued to survey
the other champions.

I spotted the Anglians. I knew their
heraldic badge all too well. The red and gold lions embroidered on
their tunics were the royal seal of Anglia.

I thought it strange that the priests had
allowed the representatives and supporters from the different
realms to wear the royal colors of their countries. I would have
thought that everyone would have been obliged to wear the simple
black and gold emblem of the Empire. Perhaps the priests had
reached some agreement with the states they had conquered regarding
the display of colors.

My eyes rested on a man with his back to me.
When he turned around, his appearance took my breath away.

His white tunic was cut low and revealed his
broad, muscular chest. His face was flawless, as though the Creator
himself had molded him. His thick dark blond hair fell in soft
curls around his square jaw, and I could see his ocean-blue eyes
staring back at me. He smiled a cheeky confident smile. I turned my
head away quickly, but I knew he’d seen the flush on my cheeks.

New movement caught my eyes, and I spotted a
plainer looking group of men and women on horseback. Their mounts
were regular carthorses, and they wore thick linen tunics and
cloaks like the one I had worn the day I’d been caught thieving.
Their clothes were travel-stained, and they looked weary. Although
their weapons and clothes were not on a par with those of the
nobles from the other realms, there was a fierce pride in the folk
from the Pit.

I should have been representing them, not
the priests.

I counted quickly. These were at least a
dozen racers from each realm, and that meant more than seventy in
the race. I turned to make a comment to the guard next to me, but
he had vanished.

And then the last person I’d expected to see
here stepped up to me.

“Are you all right?” asked Mad Jack.

It was more of a statement than a question.
I recognized the two cronies who stood next to him. The tall
freckled redhead was Leo, and the shorter one, whose hair was
shaved to the scalp and who stank of ale, was Will. They said
nothing, but watched me nonetheless.

Mad Jack sighed in relief and then smiled at
me. It was a smile that would have sent me to my knees weeks
earlier, but now all I did was stiffen.

“Thank the Creator. I was afraid…”

He didn’t finish but looked surprised at
himself for what he was about to reveal.

I didn’t care how genuinely concerned he
seemed. My feelings of betrayal and hurt cascaded down on me until
I could hardly breathe. I could feel my angry tears well up, but I
suppressed them and glared at him. I clenched my hands into
fists.

“What are
you
doing here?” I
hissed.

I didn’t try to hide the anger in my voice
or how loudly I spoke.

“I thought by now you’d be in your new
manor, spending all the coin you got from the priests for turning
me in. I do hope I was worth it.”

Mad Jack’s jaw tightened, and something dark
flashed in his eyes. He leaned forward, and his lips brushed my
ear.

“You weren’t supposed to
get
the
crown,” he whispered.

I broke out with goose bumps.

“You were supposed to fail like everyone
else before you.”

He leaned back just slightly. I looked at
him. We were so close, too close. My pulsed raced. I inhaled his
musty smell, and something warm came alive inside my body. I
couldn’t trust myself to speak, and I was tempted to kiss him. I
hated that he had that effect on me. I shouldn’t be thinking about
kissing him. I should be bludgeoning him.

“What do you mean?” I asked.

“When I first told you about the crown, it
had been a joke,” he said. “I never thought you’d go through with
it.”

I crossed my arms. “Well I did.”

“Someone close to the priests must have
overheard our conversation because the next thing I know a priest
showed up with a bag full of gold and told me that I’d get five
times that much if I could arrange to have a thief try to steal the
crown.”

He shrugged.

“Well, I’ve been in the vault, and I know
about the sorcerer’s fire. I knew it was impossible, and I never
thought you’d go through with it. It would be the easiest money I’d
ever made, so I played along. I thought they were damn fools until
you showed up with the bloody crown.”

He raked his hand over his dark hair and
shook his head.

“I couldn’t believe that you’d done it,” he
said with a low incredulous laugh.

“How did you, Elena? How’d you do it?”

“I’m not telling you anything,” I said
tightly. I wasn’t about to reveal my secret to the man who had
ruined my life.

But it did strike me as odd that the priests
should have offered to pay someone to steal their own treasure. It
was almost like they suspected that someone like me existed. It was
as if they’d been waiting for me.

“What’s that in your hand?” Mad Jack had
spotted the gold cage that I carried.

“Nothing,” I said. I slipped the cage inside
the pouch tied to my belt and pulled the string tight with a knot.
I didn’t feel like sharing anything with him at the moment.

When I looked back at Mad Jack, his eyes
were lingering on my lips. He looked up casually, and our eyes met.
I strained to keep my face expressionless. But he didn’t look
bothered at all that I had seen him staring at my lips. He smiled
slightly before he became more serious.

“I came here to tell you not to worry about
Rose,” he said.

I whirled on him with tears in my eyes.

“Don’t you hurt her! I swear, if you hurt
her I’ll kill you,” I snarled.

I threw myself at him in a wild rage. I
wanted to gouge out his eyes, but his loyal bodyguards held me back
while I kicked and thrashed.

“Let her go.” Mad Jack snapped his fingers,
and Will and Leo let me go.

He looked up and met my eyes. “I’m sorry you
have such a low opinion of me. I would never,
ever
hurt
Rose.”

There was pain in his eyes, but I didn’t
care. It was his fault I was in this mess.

“Ha! Are you kidding me? You
betrayed
me. Remember? How do I know you won’t hurt her? How can I believe
you? You broke my trust. I’ll never trust you again.”

Mad Jack’s eyes narrowed slightly. “I
suppose you have every reason to say that.”

“I do.”

The muscles in his shoulders tensed.

He examined my clothes and my weapons.

“So it’s true. You’re the priests’
champion.”

“That’s right.” My voice was bitter, and I
clenched my teeth and forced the bile back down my throat.

Mad Jack’s face went cold and his eyes
hard.

“Shit, Elena. Do you know how dangerous this
race is? Do you know what you’ll face? What’s out there?”

I stared at him blankly. The truth was I had
no idea what obstacles I’d face. It was the card the Creator dealt
me, and I would see it through, for Rose’s sake and for everyone in
the Pit.

“Is this what they’re
making
you do?”
his voice was hard. “For the stealing? They’re forcing you to race,
aren’t they?”

It stunned me that he hadn’t figured it out
before. I thought he had made this deal with priests. In any case,
they owned me now. I’d be free after the race.

I couldn’t confirm his suspicions,
especially with so many people around. The high priest had warned
me of the consequences if I told anyone that I was being
blackmailed. I was pretty sure the high priest had ears and eyes
everywhere in the city.

“I’ll take your silence as a yes,” he said,
his voice a near whisper.

“They’re going to get you killed. You’re not
experienced enough for this. Look around you, Elena. All these
people are warriors. They’ve been trained to wield a sword and to
fight since they were children. They’re the best their countries
have. You’re just a…”

“A what?” I growled. “A woman?”

Mad Jack clenched his jaw and gave me a long
look.

“This is madness. You won’t know what to
do—”

“I can manage. I always have.”

I was getting tired of him telling me how
useless I would be in a fight, but I knew he was right. I couldn’t
entirely shake off the terror I felt at what I was about to do, and
for whom I was doing it.

I might not be a warrior, but I did have a
secret healing ability. And that at least gave me the comfort not
to bolt.

I can do this.

“Elena…”

“Stop being such a prick!”

I didn’t care anymore. I really wanted to
scream again that it was his fault. My face and ears burned, and I
knew he could see I was flushed with anger and frustration.

“Why don’t you go back to your
Dirty
Habit
and leave me alone.”

I didn’t want him to see me break down. I
wouldn’t lose it.

He looked at me sympathetically.

“I came here to tell you that Rose will be
looked after. She’ll have food, plenty of it, and I have my men
watching out for her. So you needn’t worry.”

I raised my hands. “Why do you even care
what happens to Rose?”

He stared at me in silence. The color faded
from his sun-kissed skin. He looked beautiful.

He dragged a hand through his hair
again.

“I’m sorry, Elena. I never meant for any of
this to happen. I hope one day you’ll find it in your heart to
forgive me.”

With that, he turned on his heel, and he and
his cronies left.

I bit my tongue. I hated that he had just
left me here. I wanted to scream at him again.

I watched him move around, speaking with the
others from the Pit. The hammering of my heart and the flush on my
cheeks betrayed me. I didn’t know why I cared so much, but I did.
Or at least my body did.

It was then that I noticed he was wearing
riding clothes and had more weapons strapped on him than I’d ever
seen him with before. There was a confidence in his stride that I
hadn’t noticed before either. I watched him mount a beautiful white
mare. Will and Leo pulled themselves up onto tawny-colored horses
beside him.

The blood left my face. Mad Jack had entered
the race.

CHAPTER 11